My name is Henry Wallen and I am a staff writer at skewnews.com, a satire website.

Recently I wrote an political article entitled, "Penny and Nickel Coins to be Phased Out in 2013" which announced that pennies and nickels would be discontinued in January 2013. Most of our regular readers understood that it was fiction, but some people did not. The story went viral and has been viewed by several hundred thousand people.

The piece is not mean spirited, harmful or slanderous in any way, and skewnews.com carries a disclaimer stating that the website is not responsible for the accuracy of any work. However the editors and I agreed to come clean on this one.

For those people who were upset by the penny and nickel going away in January, you can be assured that this is not happening; the story is fiction and was written for entertainment value only.

If you have questions or comments, I encourage you to post them here, instead of on the original story page, as this format allows for a more interactive dialog.

Respectfully,

Henry Wallen

Yeah I was outraged by this....no really, what are you talking about??

Hello Axodeth. I wrote this article as a parody: http://skewnews.com/penny-and-nickel-coins-to-be-phased-out-in-2013/

I am including the original text below, but please know that this story is not true.

Earlier this week Canada announced that they would be phasing out their penny coin. On the heels of the Canadian announcement, U.S. Treasury Secretary, Tim Giethner stated in a press conference today that the U.S. Mint will remove the penny and nickel coins from circulation, starting early in January 2013.

Due to the rising costs of zinc and production related expenses, the U.S. Mint now spends 4.8 cents to make a penny. And the cost of copper and nickel have inflated the cost to create a nickel coin to 16.2 cents.

In 2011, the U.S. mint made over 4.9 billion pennies, at a cost of $118 million to make. That is $236 million to produce only $49 million worth of pennies, a loss of $187 million in minting costs. Minting the nickel coin also represents a significant loss in revenue.

By comparison, the dime (which costs 9.2 cents to mint) and the quarter (21.31 cents) are economically more feasible, and will continue in circulation through 2013. However, according to Giethner, the dime may be in jeopardy as early as 2014.

Once the phase out of pennies and nickels begins, merchants must be equipped to round all transactions to the nearest ten-cent increment.

If something costs $1.53, for instance, it will be rounded down to $1.50, and a transaction for $1.55 or higher will be rounded up to $1.60. Credit card, debit and check payments would also be subject to the rounding rule. It is expected that the rounding will not result in higher costs for purchases or losses for merchants.

Pennies and nickels will continue to hold their inherent cash value, and they can be traded in at financial institutions. Banks will then return the coins to the mint for recycling into their base materials. By mid 2013 it is expected that the penny and nickel will both be mostly removed from the U.S. economy.

Hello, I am new to skewnews.com.

By your own definition, I suppose, I am not one of the "regular readers" who would understand that your article was fiction. (Unlike many of the story's commenters, I was initially elated that the useless penny was being discontinued; yes, I am one of those guys.)

Despite your claim that it is a "satire website," I was unable to find a declaration of the kind anywhere. I did find the series of accuracy and reliability disclaimers in the Terms of Service, to which you alluded, but nothing about entertainment, fiction, editorial, humor, comedy, or the like. Indeed, I would have expected a mention in the TOS about satire, and thus the site being a protected form of free speech and all that, but found none. There doesn't seem to be any sort of "About Us" available either.

What did I miss?

The nickel story was idiocy, IMO, Henry. It was not satire, just false information you planted that was picked up and passed around as fact by dozens of websites.

I won't trust any website again.

S

Thank you for your messages snayl and steve; I was surprised to see that over 1500 people have read my retraction and only you two were motivated to post. So many people become "outraged" by something, yet do not have interest in dialoging about their concerns.

It is possible that a lot of people feel embarrassed that they believed the story and do not want to admit it.



To begin with the website is named Skew News, which dictionary.com defines as, "to distort; depict unfairly."

The TOS on the site advises, "The materials on Skew News’s web site are provided 'as is.' Skew News makes no warranties, expressed or implied, and hereby disclaims and negates all other warranties, including without limitation, implied warranties or conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement of intellectual property or other violation of rights."

Additionally, the quoted costs for coin production are inflated, and the spelling of treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner's name (incorrectly cited as Giethner) are purposely wrong.

And finally, recent stories have included zombie attacks, a rabbit saving a family from a fire and NYC imposing mandatory wearable ID tags on people at all times.



I am sorry that I have destroyed your trust in the internet, steve. A healthy skepticism and a good sense of humor are usually both good things.

Respectfully,

Henry Wallen

This is funny as heck. People are so dumb they believeall that they read!!!

I have a bridge to sell you to!

Henry,

I think the story was hilarious. It was a bit of a fooler, but coming from Skewnews, what the heck. I think your other posters may even believe the Onion is serious journalism.

we're moving to a credit, cashless system anyway. Coins should be phased out, thats not where the future is. It's with digital currency like credit or numbers on a computer.

Why so serious,we are supposed to trust eachother




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